Chapter 1. Overview of General Concepts

Java is a programming language and a computing platform that incorporates concepts such as object-orientation, classes, and concurrency. Java applications are compiled down to bytecode and are run inside a Java Virtual Machine (JVM).

An application server, or app server, is software that provides an environment to run web applications. Most app servers also provide functionality to web applications running in their environment through a set of APIs. For example, an app server can provide an API for connecting to a database.

Java EE (Java Platform, Enterprise Edition) is a standards-based enterprise platform that provides both an API and runtime environment for running and developing Java applications. The goal is to improve developer productivity by providing rich enterprise capabilities in easy to consume frameworks that eliminate boilerplate and reduce technical burden. The frameworks that compose Java EE are heavily tested in combination. Java EE 7, based on JSR 342, is a follow up to Java EE 6, with the primary focus being additional simplification of APIs to access container services while increasing support for emerging web technologies, such as HTML5.

Java EE 7 includes support for multiple profiles, or subsets of APIs. The Java EE 7 specification defines the full profile and the web profile.